They made hard work of it, but Les Kiss’ Queensland Reds did enough to overturn a 10-point deficit to go on and defeat the Melbourne Rebels 26-22.

After a sleepy first-half, the Reds trailed 15-5 at half-time but scored three unanswered converted tries to open a 26-15 lead after 63 minutes.

But a try to replacement loose forward Maciu Nabolakasi and Carter Gordon’s conversion saw the Rebels close the deficit to four points.

The Reds then defended their line for 14 phases before prop Cabous Eloff was deemed to have knocked the ball on inside the home side’s attacking 22 metre line.

“There was a lot of fight tonight and sometimes you’ve got to win ugly,” said Reds co-captain Tate McDermott, who came off the bench and helped lift his side’s tempo.

“It was pretty ugly but we’ll take it and move on.”

While the Reds were a completely different side in the second half, the match swung further in favour of the home side when Rebels hooker Jordan Uelese was forced to come to the sidelines temporarily after a head knock in the 58th minute.

At the time, the Rebels lead 15-12. When the Test hooker returned 15 minutes later, the Rebels were trailing by 26-15 after being forced to shift regular tight-head prop Sam Talakai to cover at hooker after Alex Mafi suffered an injury in the warm-up.

The unfortunate blow came after Taniela Tupou lasted just nine minutes against his former side before suffering a concussion.

The Reds suffered an injury blow themselves, with Harry Wilson seen wearing a sling after coming off midway through the second-half.

“He’s gone to hospital to double check it,” Kiss said.

Outside centre Josh Flook finished the match smiling, but the former Australian Schoolboys captain was floored a couple of times by makeshift centre Nick Jooste.

“I got nailed a couple of times,” he said. “I said to Joostie, ‘I haven’t been hit that hard for a very long time.’ Credit to him, he came out of the line and got me.”

Flook was one of the Reds’ best and his second-half charge through the middle of the field set the tone for the home side’s much-improved showing.

Before then the Rebels dominated the collision area of the match, with their forwards and backs going to work against the great movers of Australian rugby in 2024.

Uelese was strong on both sides of the ball, Josh Canham was a pest at the lineout and on the floor and the entire back-tow of Josh Kemeny, Vaiolini Ekuasi and Tuaina Taii Tualima were superb.

But it was Filipo Daugunu who shone brightest, with the outside centre getting on the ball to win breakdown penalties and sending teammates into score too.

Indeed, they were the keys to the Rebels’ 15-5 half-time lead as the visitors forced the Reds into giving away several penalties through the pressure they exerted, including when Daugunu put Andrew Kellaway into score and recently re-signed centre Hunter Paisami was shown a yellow card for a high shot.

Yet, as Paisami started to grow into the match so did the Reds, with the home side scoring three tries in eight minutes to come storming back into the contest.

They did it in baby steps, with Fraser McReight following the lead of Matt Faessler in the first half by scoring off the back of a rolling maul in the 55th minute.

Then Jock Campbell reminded Joe Schmidt what he’s capable of in some space as he ran away to score a spectacular long-range try after some lovely quick hands from Paisami and Lawson Creighton.

The Reds then had their third when Paisami ran to the line and split some tired Rebels defence, before linking up with Tim Ryan to send the rising winger away.

“It wasn’t ideal in a lot of minutes in that game but we got the right minutes right,” Kiss told Stan Sport following the four-point win.

“In the second half they came out and showed who they were for the majority of that half and it was enough to get the win.”

Asked about his half-time talk, Kiss said the entire squad recognised they were off the pace.

“I think all the coaches fired them up,” he said.

“I wasn’t pleased but when I asked them the questions, they were the ones that weren’t pleased.

“I wouldn’t say that they were embarrassed but they let Melbourne play a good style of rugby, they were getting on top of us physically, we weren’t finding that energy to come back at them.

“We did take into account last week (the Reds’ first win in Christchurch in 25 years), and we knew it might be a flat spot going into the game but they stayed in it.

“At half-time they made the decision and the choice to come out and be a different team and they did that.”

Rebels front-rower Talakai said his side needed to learn how to close those matches out, having lost three straight matches.

“Proud of the effort, we started really well but then we had a bit of a lull in the second half and the Reds capitalised,” he said. “They’re a good team.

“We’ve got to learn to finish those off.”